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On Oct. 15, journalist and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Shiori Itō spoke with a packed audience at Harvard University’s Tsai Auditorium following the screening and discussion of her Oscar-nominated documentary memoir “Black Box Diaries” (2024).

The film details Itō’s pursuit of justice after surviving sexual assault by a prominent Japanese journalist. Through her story, Itō exposes the “black boxes” that obscure truth and silence survivors in Japan’s legal and media systems.

Itō first spoke publicly at a press conference in May 2017 at the Tokyo District Court to draw attention to her case and the broader issues surrounding sexual assault in Japan. She made national headlines, but also faced a torrent of backlash, hate mail, and threats. In her fight for justice, she inadvertently became the face of Japan’s #MeToo movement, opening space for others to speak out.

Itō, the first Japanese director ever nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary feature film category, also published the memoir “Black Box.” The novel, published ahead of the film, provides a journalistic chronicle of Itō’s journey seeking legal justice and choosing to go public about her experience. Her work has become emblematic of Japan’s reckoning with gender inequality and justice for survivors.

Professor Karen Thornber of the East Asian Languages and Civilizations department coordinated the event in collaboration with Harvard’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Weatherhead Center’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations and the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Itō’s visit to Harvard is part of a larger tour of U.S. colleges and universities. “When I learned of this tour from a colleague at Dartmouth last spring, I immediately began work to bring her to Harvard,” Thornber explained.

“As is well known, Ms. Itō has faced significant backlash in Japan, so there were some concerns for her safety and security, but thanks to careful planning, the event went smoothly and the audience, one of the largest in the history of the Reischauer Institute, remained respectful,” she said.

Akiko Takeyama, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Kansas, served as a co-moderator of the discussion with Professor Thornber.

The audience was composed of students and scholars from across Boston, drawn by Itō’s courage and her commitment to telling the truth despite systemic corruption and social stigma.

The film unfolds as a visual record of Itō’s experience, weaving together CCTV and courtroom footage, video diaries recorded on her phone, and a series of personal vignettes. Some moments are tender and humorous; others are raw, intimate, and unsettling. Much of the footage comes from a wobbly handheld camera that follows her as she eats, weeps, and navigates the small rituals of daily life. In one scene, she opens a bottle of wine as she decides the title of her book; in another, she searches the corners of her apartment for wiretaps. This closeness and honesty draw viewers in.

At one point, Itō expressed gratitude to a panel of female journalists who supported her pursuit of justice. Reflecting on earlier press conferences, where her voice had so often been dismissed or distorted, she recalled feeling “like standing naked before the audience.” Now, she said, choking back tears, “I feel like I’m wrapped in layers and layers of blankets.”

That sense of protection and shared empathy seemed to extend into the auditorium itself. The screening left many in the audience visibly emotional, with several students moved to tears.

Harvard College student Emma Y. Xi ’29 was introduced to the event through the First-Year Seminar “Stories of Gender and Justice” with Professor Thornber. Itō’s memoir is a part of the course syllabus and, earlier that week, she had met with the class for a discussion.

“I think that for a lot of people in our class as well, people were talking with their families about how we had this visitor and the work that she does,” Xi said. “I’m part Japanese, so I talked about my experience growing up some summers in Japan and kind of seeing the culture that Shiori Itō is talking about in her memoir, in her film.”

During the subsequent discussion, questions ranged from the technical, such as how she distilled over 450 hours of footage to the 103-minute film, to the linguistic, examining how slang and swear words reclaim agency from Japan’s traditionally deferential speech patterns. Itō also spoke candidly about building support networks with other survivors. Kickboxing, for example, was a common thread she found as a coping mechanism among the women.

Reflecting on the evening, Itō also noted the significance of sharing the film with a large Japanese audience abroad: “I was just so surprised to see how full it was. And when I asked about who speaks Japanese, I think 1/3 of people, or maybe more, raised their hand.”

“I did so many screenings here in the U.S., and it was the first time to have so many Japanese people. I was always scared of how Japanese people see it, but everyone was so supportive. And I feel like we have a similar language to understand it is really about the bigger picture of the problem and the system. So I’m just so lucky that I could be here and share this.”

Takeyama shared some ways Itō’s screening can inspire changes on campus, emphasizing the importance of collectively listening to the victims.

“I’d like to see more collective action. Sexual violence is viewed in the frame of the private matter. Often it’s treated as a violation of privacy or protection of privacy in such a way the problem tends to be relegated as a just private issue. It should be a civil rights issue, public problem or collective issue,” she said.

In her closing remarks, Thornber reflected on the broader significance of Itō’s film and visit.

“Film and other arts can bring us together, can enable us to work together to create a different and better future,” she said. “One where violence is stigmatized, where the shame and stigma are not in having been assaulted, are not in speaking out against violence but instead are in the violence and the shaming itself.”